OFW: The hope of our Nation

[Dr. Rusty Balderian]

Two days after I posted my article "Wanted: A Few Good Men (and Women) on this website, I was deluged, literally, with emails in reaction to my ideas. Majority of the emails agreed with me in one way or another. However, there were a few who felt slighted that I accused all the politicians in the Philippines as corrupt and dishonest. It was a general statement and I had no intention of disparaging all the politicians. I am one of them and I can look at your eye and tell you that I am not corrupt and dishonest. Probably, I am the only Mayor in the Philippines that provides free college education to its constituents ( www.csllfi.org ). The IRA (Internal Revenue Allotment) of my town being a 5th class Municipality is only seventeen (17) million pesos a year. Even if I steal the whole amount, it will not be sufficient to pay for the expenses in my school that provides free college education.

My statement was based on the last Barangay and SK (Samahan ng Kabataan) election. There was open vote buying which ranges from Five Hundred (500.00) pesos to Three Thousand Five Hundred (3,500.00) pesos. As long as you have the money, you can get elected even if a candidate is only a second grader, a gambler, and an alcoholic. The salary of a Barangay Chairman in our town is about Two Thousand (2, 000.00) pesos a month. However, the Barangay IRA is about Two Hundred Fifty Thousand (250,000.00) pesos to about Five Hundred (500,000.00) Thousand pesos depending on the size and population of the Barangay. You can do the math how the Barangay Chairman will recoup his cost of being elected.

With the SK Election, the voters who were fifteen (15) to eighteen (18) years old in the Barangay sold their votes to the highest bidder. It was easy for them to decide who to vote for. They just asked how much and what model of cell phone the candidate was willing to give.

After the election, our Parish Priest, made a comment that "we need to kill all the people from five years old above if we want to eliminate Graft and Corruption in the Philippines". He made this sweeping statement because of his disappointment and the feeling of hopelessness from what he has seen and experienced in the last election. Our national leaders have lost the moral ascendancy to govern, from the President down to the Senators and Congressmen, and now it has permeated even to the lowest level of governance - the SK (Samahan ng Kabataan) which is our youth who is supposedly the hope of our nation. They have lost their innocence and the hope to be the source of upright leaders of our nation.

The OFW/OF on the other hand is composed of highly skilled, highly trained, and highly educated segment of our society. They are born leaders who venture to the unknown. Trailblazers and pathfinders for the next generation of Filipinos who will work overseas. Risk takers and thrill seekers. These are the Doctors, Nurses, Engineers, and Teachers among others.

When the good teachers left to work as domestic helpers abroad, the quality of education suffered. Our graduates became less educated. The quality of teachers that we produced now in the Philippines is below par to the teachers that we used to have fifteen years ago. This was shown in the result of the English proficiency testing in the school year 2006-2007. There were only 60% of the Public Elementary school teachers who passed the test. What is worse is that only 20% of the Public High School Teachers passed the test.

The brain drain in the Philippines has affected not only the quality of education but also the quality of governance. A severe shortage of leadership has occurred in our country in the past few years. There has been a leadership vacuum that sucked in high school drop outs, actors, singers, and comedians to serve as Congressmen, Senators, and President of our nation. The acute shortage was felt by the religious groups when Eddie Villanueva ran for President in 2004 and Gov. Panlilio in 2007.

The political situation in our country is going from worse to dire. We need to change our leadership ASAP if we want to make a change for the better. The only hope and solution is for our OFW/OF to come home and be counted to take their role as leaders of our nation.

[Susie Barbieri]

"The political situation in our country is going from worse to dire. We need to change our leadership ASAP if we want to make a change for the better. The only hope and solution is for our OFW/OF to come home and be counted to take their role as leaders of our nation.".........

I fervently hope that your call will be heard Doc.

Due to my family situation, going home is not the priority but I can always extend help whenever I can.

[Dr. Rusty Balderian]

Thank you Susie for your desire to help. That means a lot to us here in the Philipppines. I have been waiting and crossing my finger for someone to make a comment and say "Count me in".

I understand your family situation Susie. My wife and 3 children are not too happy either that I ran for Mayor in our small home town of TabonTabon, Leyte. My wife and 11 year old son used to pray every day during the campaign period, for me not to win so I will not stay long in the Philippines. In fact, they have not visited me in my hometown since I became Mayor. We used to come home for vacation at least twice a year, Christmas and Foundation day of our school. But now, I have to be the one to visit them in California.

What is inspiring and important is your desire to extend help. Now I know that I can count on one overseas Filipino to help me in one way or another change our country for the better. I am sure that most of our members in this social group feels the same way as you do but are just shy to come forward and answer my call. We have almost a hundred members but very few is participating in the discussions. Some may think that the issues will just go away without doing anything. Some probably don't care. Others maybe scared.

Should I tone down my expectations from the OFW/OF to be the hope of our nation?

[Lourdes King]

Hello Dr. RB,

I feel your emotional charge to to good and give back.

You're acting upon it now, but just remember the saying" behind every great man, you will find a great woman". This is your wife's role at the moment and she is doing a good job keeping the family together. I hate to burst your bubble, but this is not only all about you and your vision. You have a family who loves you and worries about you.

Many times, we, the good women, have had to give up our jobs to follow the path that our husbands' careers take.
We find ourselves starting all over again making new friends and not to mention, making a new salary and building on another longevity. Many of us have had to adjust to our new environment while the men in our lives are far from us - thousands of miles away.

Crossing the Atlantic was hard enough, how much longer can you keep crossing the Pacific?

Back to "returning home", we've made serious considerations but we always ask the question, "Are we safe?"
We love the idea of living in the Philippines but my husband is also an American. What can you say about security issues?

[Dr. Rusty Balderian]

Hi Lourdes,

What you said is very true. However, a time comes when we are confronted with a question of the very reason for our existence. But that's beside the point. My wife will be very happy to read your comment.

Regarding your question about security, I believe that most of the areas in the Philippines are safe even for Americans except in some pockets of Mindanao. There are places in the Philippines that is safer than the cosmopolitan cities in the States. We don't have follow home roberies in Leyte, or random shooting in the malls and schools. We have "Volunteers of the Visayas" composed of American and European Students that strolls in the city streets at 2 in the morning. They have been here for more than three years already and knock on wood, nothing bad has happened to anyone of them that I'm aware of.

But I don't advocate for everyone to go home yet, except for those who are willing to run for public office. We still need the dollar remittance to prop up our peso. We need to replace first the "trapos", actors and singers in Congress and Senate. We need to implement the laws like we do in the States and Europe. We need to implement economic reforms so we will have jobs available for everyone. We need to stop the brain drain. Once we have done that, then we can start asking our OFW's to come home to provide brain gain. Whatever good practices they have learned outside can be replicated in our country.

[Ramon M. Gallinera]

You are right, the former speaker when He lost the grip of Power, had spilled the bean of corruption of the Present Government, the Garci Tape Scandal-Cheating and Cheating to be in Power, the ZTE Scandal via the COMELEC(Experts in Cheating) , The Rotary Club President Robbery of Fertilizers from the poor Farmers in the Person of Jocjoc Bolante,, the most espensive Boulevard in the world the Gloria Macapagal ( In Bicol it means Tiring) Avenue overpriced several times over, the road users tax, the evat taxation collections were robbed and squandered by the Macapagal-Arroyo Families in cooperation with the Cabinet Men and the former Speaker's Aliies and JDV Himself. This is a high treason for the former Speaker JDV and President Gloria. There is also bungling of OWWA and POEA Funds. Thats is why we former OFWs have just confined ourselves to just concentrating on livelihood for the families of OFWs. You can be part of this thru our OFW INSTITUUT by sponsoring deserving families by sponsoring them to venture into livelihood training in our INSTITUUT

[Dr. Rusty Balderian]

Hi Freda,

"May your tribe increase"!

Hahaha. Thank you. But I think my tribe is going to get extinct the way I read the discussions in the different egroups. I don't think there will be a few good men and women who will "walk their talk". Its all "talk and talk". A never ending discussion.

However, since hope springs eternal, I will still keep on crossing my fingers that some of us in cyberspace will come forward and say "count me in".

Thank you for your continuing support, help, encouragement and prayers.

God Bless!

Rusty

[Roger R ( the serious gold prospector)]

Hi Doc:

With full of ambiguity regarding the political situation in our mother land I find your article interesting to read. However with this horrifying statement made by a clergy man-it seems inappropriate in my perspective. Quote: "we need to kill all the people from five years old above if we want to eliminate Graft and Corruption in the Philippines". There has to be a solution to the existing problem in this regards.

Roger

[Dr. Rusty Balderian]

Hi Roger,

Thank you for your comment. I for one was taken aback by the statement of our Parish Priest. However, I believe it was just a figure of speech when he said that to express his frustration, anger, and disappointment to what is going on in our country. It just shows how bad is the situation now compared before you left the Philippines. You can just imagine for a clergyman to say that is beyond comprehension.

Yes, there is a solution to this problem. Please read my other article: Wanted a Few Good Men (and Women). I think this is the only viable solution.

Regards and God Bless!

Rusty

[Roger R ( the serious gold prospector)]

Hi Mayor (DOC):
Upon reading your article I am convinced about the reality of the inherent nature of the economic and political situation in our motherland. What in a hell these so called political leaders have a place in the senate floor if they already lost there credibility? Not to name of the few but Lacson, Honassan, Trillanes, Revilla, Jinggoy Estrada, Lapid and Enrile. Is this a popularity contest or a gong show politics?

[Dr. Rusty Balderian]

Hi Roger,

Is this a popularity contest or a gong show politics?

Haha. My answer is all of the above.

What in a hell these so called political leaders have a place in the senate floor if they already lost there credibility?

Short answer is : Due to apathy of the Filipino people and "makakapal ang mukha ng mga taong ito"

Sorry for the late reply. My town was flooded for the past few days.

Rusty

[Roger R ( the serious gold prospector)]

Hi Doc:

Pakapalan ba nang mukha? One thing for sure this has to be fixed before we can move on smoothly. If there’s an obstacle in our vision then it will be expeditiously get rid of with our teamwork and possible cooperation of the masses.

I'm sorry to hear about the flood.

Take care ..roger

[Dr. Rusty Balderian]

Hi Roger,

Yes, that's very true if our leaders in the OFW will only come forward and run in the coming election to replace these "trapos". No matter how much noise we make in cyberspace, these people will not listen to us to change their ways. We need to replace them. But the problem is, most of our OFW leaders would write, talk, and argue in cyberspace to boost their ego rather than put into action their good ideas. They are waiting to be annointed by the OFW's as oficial candidates before they come home to fight in the coming election. There's only very few of us who are willing to sacrifice and challenge these "trapos".

Roger, help me find these few good men and women that can replace these "trapos". Please ask some of your friends who among them would like to come home and run an elective position in 2010. We need people to stand up against them. We need OFW's to come forward so the 8 million in Diaspora can rally behind them.

They need to come home now and re-introduce themselves in their community. We need to renew our friendship and re-kindle old relationships at least one year before election period. Time is of the essence.

Thanks,

Rusty